Sephiroth stormed out of the library like he was a man possessed. Cloud tried to follow him but he was too fast. He had never seen him like this before and it scared him.

Hiro was stood outside the library door dusting off his uniform.

"He just rushed past me," he said to Cloud.

They chased Sephiroth through the mansion but he was too far ahead to be seen or even heard. Cloud knew he was a strong man, admired as a warrior and a mage and now it seemed he was adeptly agile too.

The vast entrance hall of Shinra Mansion looked different when they entered it. It was no longer dark and gloomy. In fact, the whole atmosphere felt brighter as if the hall was basking in the vivid glow of a sunset. That's when Cloud realised that the orange glow filtering through the windows wasn't from the setting sun. Faint shadows and dazzling flares of light danced behind the panes of glass and he could hear distant screams coming from the village.

Cloud and Hiro glanced at each other and nodded before racing out of the mansion. Searing heat and vicious flames greeted them as they burst through the mansion doors. The whole village had been engulfed in a sea of fire. Nothing had been spared, not even the well. Not even his mother's house…

"Hey it's you!"

The voice caught him off guard. It was Zangan. He was famed for being the best martial artist in Nibelheim and was the one who taught Tifa all of her moves. He was waving his arms in the air to get Cloud's attention.

"You're still sane, right?"

That could be debatable after what he'd witnessed over the last twenty-four hours.

"Then come over here and help me!" Zangan yelled without awaiting a response from Cloud.

Cloud darted towards the inferno. He could barely see a thing. The fires were spreading from building to building and thick black smoke was billowing upwards so that you could no longer see the sky. He took a large gulp of toxic air and choked as the smoke clung to his lungs. He covered his face with one hand and pressed forwards.

"I'll check this house. You check that one over there!" ordered Zangan.

That house was his mom's; his too, before he moved away. It was entirely engulfed in flames and the fire was still spreading. He ducked his head and darted through the front door. He could only take a few steps forwards until a wall of flames blocked his path. His mom was in there! He shook with fear and an intense, overwhelming sadness that made his chest feel like it was submerged under a tonne of water, ready to explode from the immense pressure. His mom was dead. He had never felt pain like it. Not even the pain from his burning skin could compare to the pain of losing her.

He emerged from his mom's house and saw Hiro lying on the ground. His eyes, open but empty, stared into the stony sky. He shook his head, unable to comprehend why Sephiroth would do such a dreadful thing.

"Terrible…" Cloud muttered to himself. "Sephiroth… this is too terrible…"

Cloud saw him up ahead near the Shinra Mansion. Two villagers were up there with him, trying and failing to subdue him. He cut them down with his sword as if their bodies were nothing but holograms. Blood was spilled, too much blood for either of them to have survived.

Sephiroth? What have you done?

They meant nothing to him. The town, his mother, his friends… he had destroyed everything. Now, Cloud wanted to destroy him…

As if sensing Cloud's intense stare, Sephiroth looked him straight in the eyes, and Cloud was sure he could see flames dancing within them. Then he turned on his heels, his black cape twisting as he spun, and walked through the fire as the flames licked his body. He didn't even flinch.

Cloud darted through the village, weaving in and out of the flames and shielding himself with his sword when the heat became too intense, until he reached the mountains. He had seen Sephiroth just minutes before but now he was nowhere in sight. He expected to at least catch him moving through the narrow mountain passages in the distance.

The man is not of this world, thought Cloud. No one can walk through flames and travel great distances in minutes.

He had known Sephiroth was a league above everyone else. He had watched him in battle, using both his physical prowess and his magical abilities – but this was the first time Cloud had considered that Sephiroth was something completely different than human.

Cloud arrived at the Mako Reactor and entered it. He saw Tifa. She was sobbing hysterically, crouched down by her father's side. As Cloud stepped closer, he could see that Tifa was cradling a dead body. His limbs were crooked, his chest still. Pools of blood lay around him.

"Papa…" she sobbed. Wiping tears from her eyes, her tone changed. "Sephiroth!? Sephiroth did this to you, didn't he!?" She stood up, breathing heavily and clenching her fists as if she was a volcano on the brink of eruption and she was trying to hold everything in. "Sephiroth… SOLDIER… Mako Reactors… Shinra… Everything!" She threw her hands in the air, yelling at the top of her lungs. "I hate them all!"

Grabbing the bloodied sword that lay discarded on the floor, she darted into the room where the chambers were stored, and, more importantly, Jenova. If she was going after Sephiroth, he'd surely kill her. His power was immeasurable. Cloud chased after her.


"Mother, I'm here to see you. Please, open this door."

Tifa held the sword firmly with both hands. It was covered in her father's blood and as she lifted the sword up higher, the blood began to drip onto her hands. She clenched her teeth together and focused on Sephiroth, who was peering into the door at the top of the stairs. He had his back towards her. She took long, deep breaths and focused her energy onto the figure above her. He would pay for what he did.

"How could you do that to papa and all the townspeople?"

She crept up the stairs, holding the sword steady and upright. Tifa expected Sephiroth to turn around, but he was transfixed on whatever was behind that door. It was only when she was inches behind him that he suddenly turned around.

His eyes were steely cold. He grabbed her arm in a swift motion with reflexes that seemed too fast for a human and took the sword from her hands. She looked up as the sword rose high into the air. Everything seemed to go in slow motion. She wanted to run, or fight, or do something; anything to save herself from succumbing to the same fate as her father, but all she could do was wait for the sword to pierce her body.

She closed her eyes. An intense pain clawed at her body and suddenly she was falling. She landed with a thud at the bottom of the stairs. When she opened her eyes, she saw Cloud peering down at her. He came. He came for her. But it was too late now. It was too late. A tear rolled down her cheek.


Tifa! He saw her lying at the foot of the stairs in a pool of blood. There was an open gash across her stomach. Fresh blood oozed out of the wound, saturating her clothes and turning her white top crimson. Her eyes were half open and she was breathing. Still alive, thought Cloud, breathing a sigh of relief.

"…You promised…" she croaked. "You promised that you'd come… when I was in trouble…"

He carefully picked her up and carried her to a safe area of the room, propped up against one of the chambers. She closed her eyes. Tifa looked peaceful now. He thought about her taking her last breaths soon. His heart felt heavy and his throat hurt as he pushed back tears. He couldn't think that way. Tifa was a fighter. She couldn't die. Not yet. He glanced at her a final time and then made his way up to the stairs and into the room beyond.

Jenova's resting place was a high-ceilinged room, built as such to accommodate its occupant. An eerie, angel-like statue loomed above Sephiroth. It was coated in a silvery metal armour that glistened in the dim lighting of the room. Angel wings sprouted from each shoulder, stretching out and tapering upwards like fans. The statue was attached to the ground by a blood-red tube which was itself attached to the statue's torso. Red liquid was being pumped through it, pulsing and throbbing as it oozed upwards in waves. Blood?

Sephiroth looked small compared to his 'mother', like he was nothing more than a tiny, insignificant dot. He brought his hands up towards the statue as if to embrace it.

"Mother, let's take this planet back together. I've thought of a great idea. Let's go to the Promised Land."

"Sephiroth…" Cloud mumbled as he stepped closer to him. His chest swelled as the anger took hold. "My family!" he roared. "My hometown! How could you do this to them!?"

The deranged man laughed in response. "They've come again, mother." He lowered his voice, his back still turned towards Cloud. "With her superior power, knowledge, and magic, Mother was destined to become the ruler of this Planet. But they… those worthless creatures… are stealing the planet from Mother…" He gracefully climbed towards the statue. "But now I'm here with you… so don't worry."

In a true display of his immense power, Sephiroth climbed the tube so that he was face to face with the Jenova statue. He grappled with it for a moment or two and then ripped the statue from its plinth, exposing the true Jenova beneath it.

Her skin was milky white but extremely weathered and battle-torn, marbled with veins, fissures and blemishes, showing signs that her life before this one had not been kind to her. A silvery helmet encased a perfectly formed, angelic-looking face, with her name emblazoned on the front. Two thin sheets of metal resembling strands of perfectly combed hair fanned down beside each cheek, whilst tubes of swirling red liquid twisted around her, pulsing and throbbing as if they were veins, pumping her full of a substance that was surely keeping her alive.

Cloud had never seen anything like her before. Was he dreaming? No. It was all real. He blinked. Hot tears rolled down his cheeks. He wished he was dreaming.

"What about MY sadness!?" Cloud cried. "My family… friends… the sadness of having my hometown taken away from me!?" He looked up at Sephiroth with wild eyes. "It's the same as your sadness!"

Sephiroth chuckled, his shoulders heaving.

"My sadness? What do I have to be sad about? I am the chosen one. I have been chosen to be the leader of this Planet. I have orders to take this planet back from you stupid people for the Cetra. What am I supposed to be sad about?"

Cloud lowered his head.

"Sephiroth… I trusted you…" He raised his sword, gripping it with both hands. "No, you're not the Sephiroth I used to know!"

Cloud stared at Sephiroth with fire in his eyes as Sephiroth returned an icy gaze. They stepped slowly towards each other, their swords glimmering in the light as Jenova watched from above.


"…And that's the end of my story," finished Cloud with a hefty sigh of relief.

"Wait a damn minute!" huffed Barret. "Ain't there more?"

"…I don't remember," replied Cloud.

"What happened to Sephiroth?" asked Aeris.

"In terms of skill, I couldn't have killed him," Cloud stated.

"Official records state Sephiroth is dead," said Tifa. "I read it in the newspaper."

"Shinra owns the paper, so you can't rely on that information," remarked Aeris.

Cloud looked around. All eyes were on him.

"…I want to know the truth," he exclaimed. "I want to know what happened then. I challenged Sephiroth and lived. Why didn't he kill me?"

"…I'm alive, too," Tifa added.

Cloud couldn't express how grateful he was that Tifa was here now. He hated to admit it, but the emotions that he still had within him, though carefully hidden, stirred painfully whenever he thought about a life without his one childhood friend. She was only fifteen at the time. Too young to die. Even now, in their twenties and beyond, already battle-weary and toughened up due to war and Shinra's treatment of the people, death seemed like a far-cry. They all had their own stories to tell and their own beliefs to fight for.

"Seems like a lot of this doesn't make sense," Aeris said. "What about Jenova? It was in the Shinra building, right?"

"Shinra shipped it from Nibelheim to Midgar," Cloud confirmed.

"Did someone else carry it out after that?" Aeris enquired. "It was missing from the Shinra building."

"Sephiroth…?" muttered Tifa as she stared at her feet.

"Damn!" bellowed Barret, throwing his arms into the air. "Don't none of this make sense! I'm going, going, going, gone! And I'm leavin' the thinkin' to you!"

He stomped to the top of the stairs and turned to the group.

"Yo, Cloud! Let's get a move on!"

"Right," replied Cloud.

For a man in his thirties, he had the excitement of a teenager who had just discovered the big bad world for the first time.

"Yo, c'mon let's go!" he exclaimed when the group didn't move as fast as he'd like them to.

And with that, he flew down the steps, his huge foot-falls echoing through the room.

"Oh brother…" Cloud huffed, shaking his head.

"Cloud…?" called Tifa.

He turned towards her.

"How bad was I when Sephiroth cut me?"

He hung his head. His nose and eyes stung as tears formed, but the tears never came.

"I thought you were a goner… I was really sad."

A heavy silence filled the room. All that could be heard was the sounds of Tifa shuffling her feet, Red's claws tapping on the floor and Cloud's own heartbeat as it thrummed in his ears.

"I…" began Aeris. Her voice was heavy with pent-up emotion. Cloud could sense it. "The Ancients… Cetra… Jenova… Sephiroth and myself…"

Everyone waited for her to continue, but Aeris became silent.

"Let's go," Tifa ordered. "Barret's waiting."

"What a fascinating story…" Red murmured to himself as they left the room.

To be continued…